February 14, 2007

Biennale's focus on Africa

What exactly has 52nd Venice Biennaleartistic director Robert Storr
been up to with those multiple curatorial sojourns to Africa? It turns
out that "Check List," an exhibition of African contemporary
art, is anchoring the Biennale's focus on Africa in the festival's
Arsenale space. According to the Biennale press office, works are being
selected from the Sindika Dokolo African Collection of Contemporary Art, an institution based in Luanda, Angola, that encompasses some 500 works by 140 artists from 28 different African nations.

...After searching for more info on Storr's "multiple curatorial sojourns to Africa" I came across this letter on ASAI; (is this about a curatorial/cultural power struggle or what?):

[This letter was initially written {by Olu Oguibe, October 2006} in response
to a letter from Salah Hassan and Okwui Enwezor to Robert Storr,
Artistic Director of the Venice Biennale. It was copied by the writer
to interested parties and is reproduced here with his permission.]

To Dr. Salah Hassan Forum for African Arts

September 19, 2006

Dear Salah,

Thanks
for your email of September 1 regarding the response from yourself and
Okwui Enwezor to artistic director Robert Storr's open call for
proposals for the African Pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale (letter
attached below). I had hoped that you would call to discuss this on the
phone as your promised, failing which I felt that I should send you my
thoughts on the matter as well as share those thoughts with other
concerned parties.

I would like to say that I do not share the
views that you and Enwezor have expressed in your letter to Robert
Storr regarding the issue at hand. I do not share the view that it is
wrong for Mr. Storr or the Venice Biennale Foundation to make an open
call for proposals that allows other parties in Africa or elsewhere the
opportunity to put forward their ideas and visions for an African
exhibition in Venice. On the contrary, I happen to think that Mr.
Storr's decision to establish an African pavilion as an official part
of the Biennale is, at least in the interim, a very positive and
commendable development. And as a firm and consistent believer in open
processes, I also think that Storr and the Venice Biennale Foundation
have done the right thing by making the proposal process an open one
that anyone with a good idea and the resources should be able to
participate in. I do not accept or share your view or Enwezor's that
under no circumstance should the process be opened to wider
participation or that the Forum for African Arts should exercise a
perpetual monopoly over African participation in the Venice Biennale
outside the main exhibition.

As I understand it, what you and
I have struggled for all these years is that more Africans should have
the opportunity to present their work and ideas to the contemporary art
world, be they artists, curators, historians or critics. That is why we
established the Forum for African Arts. I believe that Robert Storr's
idea of an open call fits this ideal while the present call by you and
Enwezor to close the process and preserve it for a privileged few runs
contrary to it. [read on...]

Comments

What exactly has 52nd Venice Biennaleartistic director Robert Storr
been up to with those multiple curatorial sojourns to Africa? It turns
out that "Check List," an exhibition of African contemporary
art, is anchoring the Biennale's focus on Africa in the festival's
Arsenale space. According to the Biennale press office, works are being
selected from the Sindika Dokolo African Collection of Contemporary Art, an institution based in Luanda, Angola, that encompasses some 500 works by 140 artists from 28 different African nations.

...After searching for more info on Storr's "multiple curatorial sojourns to Africa" I came across this letter on ASAI; (is this about a curatorial/cultural power struggle or what?):

[This letter was initially written {by Olu Oguibe, October 2006} in response
to a letter from Salah Hassan and Okwui Enwezor to Robert Storr,
Artistic Director of the Venice Biennale. It was copied by the writer
to interested parties and is reproduced here with his permission.]

To Dr. Salah Hassan Forum for African Arts

September 19, 2006

Dear Salah,

Thanks
for your email of September 1 regarding the response from yourself and
Okwui Enwezor to artistic director Robert Storr's open call for
proposals for the African Pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale (letter
attached below). I had hoped that you would call to discuss this on the
phone as your promised, failing which I felt that I should send you my
thoughts on the matter as well as share those thoughts with other
concerned parties.

I would like to say that I do not share the
views that you and Enwezor have expressed in your letter to Robert
Storr regarding the issue at hand. I do not share the view that it is
wrong for Mr. Storr or the Venice Biennale Foundation to make an open
call for proposals that allows other parties in Africa or elsewhere the
opportunity to put forward their ideas and visions for an African
exhibition in Venice. On the contrary, I happen to think that Mr.
Storr's decision to establish an African pavilion as an official part
of the Biennale is, at least in the interim, a very positive and
commendable development. And as a firm and consistent believer in open
processes, I also think that Storr and the Venice Biennale Foundation
have done the right thing by making the proposal process an open one
that anyone with a good idea and the resources should be able to
participate in. I do not accept or share your view or Enwezor's that
under no circumstance should the process be opened to wider
participation or that the Forum for African Arts should exercise a
perpetual monopoly over African participation in the Venice Biennale
outside the main exhibition.

As I understand it, what you and
I have struggled for all these years is that more Africans should have
the opportunity to present their work and ideas to the contemporary art
world, be they artists, curators, historians or critics. That is why we
established the Forum for African Arts. I believe that Robert Storr's
idea of an open call fits this ideal while the present call by you and
Enwezor to close the process and preserve it for a privileged few runs
contrary to it. [read on...]